In the streaming competition with Netflix and other services, Apple is also focusing on live sports for the first time. Will the offer also come to Germany?
Apple TV+ will show two games of the American professional baseball league MLB in several countries on Fridays, as CEO Tim Cook announced on Tuesday. For a limited period of time, Apple is even making the offer available to those interested without a subscription. The timing of the announcement isn’t entirely fortunate for Apple: Major League Baseball’s season won’t start on its scheduled March 31 date after collective bargaining failed.
Live sports as a means to push Apple TV+
On Apple TV+, Friday Night Baseball will initially be available in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the UK, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and South Korea. Other countries are to follow later, it said. In Canada and the United States, the offer is even embedded in a full 24-hour program. Of the streaming competitors, for example, Amazon shows live sports at its Prime-Service Football matches of the Champions League – in England also the Premier League.
No user numbers are known for Apple TV+. But market observers assume that the service is relatively well behind rivals like Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video. Live sport could be a tried and tested means of catching up on the number of subscriptions.
Incidentally, Apple TV+ has also been over in Germany since December Sky Q available (DIGITAL TELEVISION report on this).
With material from the dpa
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